


Kibou

by hatanokokoro



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Alternate Universe, Magical Realism, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:54:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23759425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hatanokokoro/pseuds/hatanokokoro
Summary: A Magical Realistic take on a fictional scenario between Touhou characters, in an alternate universe where most of them are human.Kokoro was the result of a virgin birth and a peculiar child to begin with. She eventually ended up in the orphanage, where she would be adopted by three guardians, one of which who wasn't a human. Where would this opportunity take her?
Kudos: 1





	Kibou

Kibou

_ “Hope” _

_ In 604, the Seventeen-Article Constitution was approved by Prince Shotoku. _

_ An excerpt from it reads: Harmony is to be valued. _

_ April 6, 622 was the date of Shotoku Taishi’s death. He lived until the age of 48, a long, successful life of founding Japan into a strong and prosperous nation that continues to thrive. _

* * *

No matter the setting, time, nor location, something remained the same. What some would consider a paralyzed face, immune to contagious laughter, was unfazed by any scenario of humor. This was the result of the virgin birth of the purple-haired spiritual practitioner, Hijiri, who never expected this predicament to occur until the night the Buddha visited her in a vision nine months before the birth; the enlightened figure explained that she would give birth to an exceptional child with a generous and pure heart, destined to bring hope to those around her. Out of the womb, her little girl didn’t even cry. Kokoro’s face never changed expressions, a condition that perplexed her mother, who had completely no idea of what to do with her – the single mother wasn’t certain whether or not it was normal. Kokoro was still able to open her mouth and perform the basic human functions, yet displaying how she felt always proved to be an impossible feat. Having no experience with children whatsoever, the mother decided to accept this child for how she was, assuming this emotionlessness to be normal. The blank-faced girl spent most of her hours confined to her house, never experiencing the company of any others her age for her first few years of life.

At the late age of five, Kokoro, with her pale pink hair, finally spoke her first word. Hijiri was so pleased to finally see her daughter attempt to speak, but the only word she spoke was “hope.” Disappointed that it wasn’t anything relevant to her nor her religion, the Buddhist priestess decided to give up on raising a child who seemingly couldn’t carry on the fate she was destined for by the Buddha. Hijiri then sought to pursue the ways of Buddha in order to achieve the highest ranking of nun, instead of taking care of a  _ useless _ child. She didn’t hesitate to put Kokoro up for adoption in order to reach her new goals. It’s not like abandoning this child meant anything to Hijiri; she didn’t want Kokoro. Having a child wasn’t a part of her plans in life, but only an obstacle in her way of enlightenment.

At the orphanage, the emotionless child was unable to get along with any of the other children. Her memories of her biological mother disappeared; the face in her recollections of this lady seemed to always be too far away to make out clearly. For this reason, there’d always seem to be a dark aura around the pink-haired girl as if there were storm clouds following her around, outwardly representing her frustration. The children from the orphanage complained about the expressionless girl and referred to her as a bad omen, as the lights always flickered around her, sometimes resulting in a blackout across the whole household. In the middle of the crying from scared kids trapped in complete darkness, there was a girl in the center of all the noise, completely calm throughout this commotion. Despite the fact she was the one who  _ caused _ the occurrence, Kokoro thought her own darkness was normal. What was so strange about what the eyes were unable to perceive? It was just like the place everyone started: in the darkness of the mother’s womb. Or a so-called mother who left her child. 

A long-awaited opportunity arrived for Kokoro when to everyone’s surprise, she was adopted. After being adopted, her darkness faded away, as if these ladies who adopted her shone a holy light upon her the moment they met. No more hauntings occurred at the orphanage. In the happy home of a lively, Taoist family; Kokoro now had three guardians whom she would address by tugging on the hems of their old-fashioned silk clothing, because she hadn’t learned their names just yet. The pink-haired girl was sheepish and shy around her new family. The child whimpered, her cheeks tinted with a dash of peach hues. The tallest of the three guardians, with tan, owl-like spikes for hair, chuckled to herself. This was all according to the hermit, Seiga’s, plan: to adopt a child to raise. The reason? Her two wives were unable to conceive children after Miko’s resurrection as a woman. Needless to say, he was Prince Shotoku. For reasons still unknown, he had woken up one day from a long nap as the opposite gender. An Asuka period hermit with looped, electric blue hair named Seiga had contacted him through text messages, informing him that adopting a pink-haired girl from a certain orphanage would benefit them greatly in this reincarnated life. That was quite the mystery. 

“Welcome to our family, Kokoro. You can address me as Miko.” The tallest introduced herself, offering a hand to the little girl. It was only befitting for a former prince to greet her new child in such a polite manner. The moment was ruined when vibrations came from her pocket. The pink-haired child remembered this, that life-sucking device that some of the orphanage kids would spend hours looking at. For a moment, Kokoro feared her guardians would also be addicted to that small, glowing, rectangular device, but was soon proved wrong when Miko fumbled a bit with her mobile phone for a moment when it rung, trying to silence the sound to solely focus on her child before stuffing it into her pocket. The new body was also something she couldn’t get used to. Miko had only inhabited the body for around a day, and was still adapting to it.

On the inside, she was very thankful for this attention that she received. It was more than her former mother ever gave her, yet she was unable to display her joy. For now, she would have to just utter out, “Hope.” This resulted in a chuckle from the Shotoku Prince. The orphanage workers did warn her that the child was very behind in speaking and comprehension, not that the Taoist family minded too much.

“I’m your favorite wife, right?” The green-haired and shortest lady whined, interrupting the bonding moment the former prince and child had in the living room. She wore a long, moss colored dress that was plastered with Tao talisman at the bottom, concealing most of her colorless legs. She seemed to shake as she spoke, her voice filled with anxiety and anger, almost as if her voice could cause lightning bolts to appear in the air itself if anything could push her off the edge.

Kokoro’s attention shifted to the green haired lady. She seemed to be the same as the rest—just a bit paler. Her head tilted to the left very slowly, then the right. This lady still was a stranger to her, so she would refrain from doing anything. At the same time, though, something about this lady left Kokoro uneasy. If she were to be able to express anything, the pink-haired girl would probably start crying, though the only thing on her face was a blank expression.

“Tojiko, I love both you and Futo equally. You don’t have to be jealous.” The Prince tried to console her distraught smaller wife, averting her attention from Kokoro to the green-haired lady. The moment their skin was supposed to touch and meet for a warm embrace, though, Miko’s hands just went through her wife. The hermit, Seiga, must’ve interfered with the resurrection, or Tojiko’s eyes were just playing tricks. It would be better for all of them to take it easy the rest of the day, the former Prince concluded. The child wasn’t looking at the time and completely missed what happened between the two lovers.

“Miko, we have a child to take care of now, so let us provide her with the utmost care, now, shall we?” Futo, the white-haired, patient wife of the prince tried to pull the attention back onto Kokoro, though Tojiko seemed to be quite needy at the time. The shortest lady required more attention than she was getting, and a child on top of it all wasn’t going to settle it for her.

“I’m not going near that child until I get answers!” The envious wife yelled back at them all. If the neighbors were home, they would probably be calling child welfare services at this time.

“I’ll just get to take care of Kokoro all by myself then!” The oldest of the women chuckled to herself, her long, white hair flowing behind her back as she scooped Kokoro up into her arms. It took the child by surprise at first, but it felt warm. It was something that was pleasant and new. The orphanage would never allow for the guests to get so personal with them at a given time. Being adopted was so much better. “Why hello there, my name is Futo. I’m quite delighted to finally have the chance to spend time with you like this.”

“Hope…” Kokoro mumbled out, because that was about the only vocabulary she knew. It was as if she wanted to say something more significant and hold a conversation, though she only could hold onto her hope at this point. While she was being carried by Futo, she noticed the white kimono the lady wore had ribbons at the end, covering her hands as if they were oversized. That seemed to steal her attention for the time being. It was definitely the most interesting thing she’d ever seen, “… Hope…!”

Kokoro’s voice seemed to catch Tojiko and the former Prince’s attention as they suddenly turned their heads towards Kokoro.

“My daughter can speak!” Miko exclaimed, pulling the girl from her white-haired wife and cradling her in her own arms. Kokoro was bummed that she lost the ribbons to play with, but Miko had a purple cape, so she started playing with that for the time being as the former prince continued speaking, “Futo, take note of this. We must teach her more; she can learn to recite my constitution next!”

“Not so quickly, you’re going to end up stressing her out!” Futo tried to reclaim the child from the former crown prince. She just wanted to nurture this girl since it was their first day together, and there would be so many more fun days to come; it was all just getting started. Kokoro was in the middle of this all, but she didn’t mind, because she was entertained by the commotion.

“If we get in contact with Seiga, I’m sure she will figure something out and we can patch this all together. She wouldn’t tell us to adopt a random child for no reason at all, right?”

“Miko, you are my Prince, but this our first day in these reincarnated bodies. You are aware of this, yes? Do you even know where we are right now?”

“Ah yes, we are at Ikarugadera.”

“It’s not called that anymore, Miko, this place is now called Horyūji. Do you know what year it is? This is 2018!”

There was a long pause. Miko wasn’t sure how she should reply to Futo. Her subordinate wife was supposed to be below her, not correcting her in front of some ghost and child. Before Miko could open her mouth to speak, her mobile phone fell from her side pocket and turned on, displaying the date and location clearly without anyone touching the screen. Only Miko and Futo’s eyes glanced over to the location where the phone clattered on the wooden floor to see the evidence of the truthful words Futo spoke; Tojiko and Kokoro seemed be disinterested in the incident, Kokoro still fiddling with Miko’s cape in between her small fingers while the younger wife watched the child closely, glaring. At that time, the former Prince finally came up with a reply to her white-haired wife, “Ah, my bad. I should’ve checked this device sooner. Seiga advised me to trust in it more since they call these  _ smart _ phones for a reason. I wish they had these back in the Asuka period.” Miko chuckled her mistake off and hugged her family close.

“I just want you to make good choices, and to make sure Kokoro is safe. I want this family to be happy and healthy for as long as possible.” Futo returned the squeeze. Tojiko couldn’t just ruin their moment, but how she loathed the ones with bodies able to feel the warmth of her husband. She wanted to feel Miko’s embrace once again.

The first night ended with all of them sharing a king-sized bed and sleeping in it together under the covers. Miko was in the middle, resting between Tojiko, who was mumbling in her slumber, and Futo, who clung onto the one arm she had access to. Kokoro had the prime spot, right on top of the former Prince’s belly, where she laid warm. It was unlike any sensation she felt prior to that day—it truly felt like somewhere she belonged. The expressive poker face hoped the fun filled days would continue on like this for a while.

  
  



End file.
